Corporate manslaughter trial jury hears details

Winchester Court has this week heard details of the death of Alexander Wright, a geologist who died whilst working for Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd. Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd is currently the first company on trial for corporate manslaughter in the UK. 

Mr Wright was testing soil in a 12.6-foot, unsupported pit which collapsed. He died of traumatic asphyxia. It is alleged that Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd breached health and safety laws because the pit was not supported by timbering.

No one was in the dock for Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd. The charges against the company’s director, Peter Eaton, have been dropped due to his ill health.

The court heard that the site owners tried to save Mr Wright and called for emergency help, but they could not keep up with the flow of earth into the pit.

Mark Ellison, prosecuting, told the jury that industry codes of practice from 1981 outlined the danger of workers entering pits deeper than 1.2m due to the risk of injury or death from the pit collapsing. Updated 1999 industry advice also says that a deeper pit unsupported 'is not allowed for health and safety reasons', the jury heard.

According to This is Gloucestershire, Mark Ellison told the Court that Cotswold Geotechnical's own health and safety document, written by Peter Eaton in 1992, also said that timbering or support must be used if the pit depth was greater than 1.2m. In a police interview, it is reported Mr Eaton told officers he had not adapted his working methods since he started in the 1970s even though long experience had shown that such 'trial pits' were known to suddenly collapse.